Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivax nonsense about “PureBloods” endangers the lives of children

The antivax idea of “purebloods” is back and endangering a child’s life. Same as it ever was, unfortunately.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

On “natural immunity” to COVID-19 (and every other vaccine-preventable disease)

Antivaxxers have long appealed to “natural immunity” as being somehow inherently superior to vaccine-induced immunity, which is apparently “artificial”. This is a trope that comes from alternative medicine concepts about purity and contamination that is now endangering us in the age of the pandemic.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Christopher Shaw uses the results of an abusive FOIA request to intimidate a scientist

Scientist turned antivaccine activist Christopher Shaw tried to intimidate an Alzheimer’s disease expert named Catherine Roe for having withdrawn from an antivaccine crankfest called One Conversation using the results of an abusive FOIA request. Sadly, this is now a common tactic.

Categories
Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Casedemic: The latest COVID-19 conspiracy theory to downplay the severity of the pandemic

Antivaccine activists and pandemic minimizers Del Bigtree and Joe Mercola are promoting the myth of the “casedemic” that claims that the massive increase in COVID-19 cases being reported is an artifact of increased PCR testing and false positives due to too sensitive a threshold to the test. As they have done for vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases many times before, they are vastly simplifying and exaggerating a scientific controversy to cast doubt on the scope and deadliness of the pandemic.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Grifters gonna grift: Cancer quacks Ty and Charlene Bollinger pivot to antivaccine and “Stop the Steal” conspiracies

Ty Bollinger and his wife Charlene were noted for their promotion of cancer quackery. Now they’ve pivoted to antivaccine and COVID-19 quackery plus “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theories because grifters gonna grift. Always.